55 
which, gives a blue precipitate with ferro-cyanide of potas¬ 
sium, and with tincture of galls a violet precipitate. 
Fig. 14—17.— -Native Iron and Meteoric Stones. 
Native iron may be recognised by its grey colour, crys¬ 
talline structure, metallic lustre, toughness and malleability; 
by its hackly or granular fracture, a hardness of 4 - 5, and a 
specific gravity of 7 "35—7*8. It is infusible before the 
blowpipe ; it burns, however, with emission of sparks, to a 
black slag, which consists of the protoxide of iron, and, like 
the native iron, is strongly attracted by the magnet. It 
occurs very rarely in nature in small laminae, for the most 
part accompanied by magnetic ironstone or sulphur pyrites, 
as, for instance, in the platina sand of the Urals, in the mica- 
schist of the United States, with sulphur pyrites in the 
lower Tceuper at Miihlhausen in Thuringia, in the basalt of 
Antoine, etc. It may be distinguished from the magnetic 
iron with which it is sometimes associated by its becoming 
covered with metallic copper when placed in a solution of 
the oxide of copper, and by its not being friable. Most 
native iron, however, is meteoric, and, like the meteorolites, 
has fallen to the earth partly within the period of history ; 
and it is sometimes also disseminated in particles through¬ 
out meteoric stones. Blocks of such masses of iron have 
been known, of from 15 to 30,000 pounds, which have been 
worked as malleable iron, steel, and made into all kinds of 
instruments. Thus Pallas found a mass of 1400 Russian 
pounds on the Jenisei in Siberia; similar, and still larger 
blocks, have been found at Elnbogen in Bohemia, in North 
and South America, in Mexico and Chili. Meteoric iron 
usually contains from 2 to 7 per cent, of nickel, is malle¬ 
able, of crystalline structure, and of an oblique-angled 
foliated structure like Fig. 17; it also, for the most part, 
exhibits only a small quantity of carbon ; on the other 
hand, it not unfrequently contains different, and partly new 
mineral substances, disseminated throughout it, especially 
olivine (Fig. 16), schreibersite (a remarkable compound of 
phosphuret of iron and phosphuret nickel), etc. There is 
also stellate meteoric iron, which may be distinguished 
from the others by its finely granular structure and greater 
hardness, and sometimes also by its containing nickel. It 
always contains carbon, however. 
Meteoric stones generally fall to the earth in rounded 
masses in the shape of fiery balls, covered with a black 
and often glassy crust; they usually enter deeply into the 
soil, and may not unfrequently be found in a heated state 
if the observer is near ; sometimes they split up in the 
air, and are scattered in numerous wedge-shaped pieces, so 
that, in fact, there is an actual shower of stones. Fig. 14, 
in Plate XVII., represents one of a hundred pieces which 
fell at Stanneru in Moravia, on the 22d of May 1808, with¬ 
in a circuit of three leagues. It presents an earthy fracture 
of a light grey colour, in which small grains of magnetic 
pyrites are observable. Fig. 15 is a polished fragment of 
a similar meteorolite, in which there is a small amount of 
nickel-iron, and which fell at Aigle in the south of France. 
Fig. 16 is a cut fragment of meteoric iron, with many more 
or less decomposed rounded grains of olivine, which was 
found in Mexico. Fig. 17 is a piece of pure meteoric iron, 
of almost a silver-white colour, which, being polished and 
eaten away, shows the foliated structure of the octahedron, 
and partly also of the cube. Meteoric iron has been made 
into all kinds of implements. It is now bought, however, 
as a curiosity, at very high prices (6s. to 24s. or 28s. an 
ounce), for the cabinets of naturalists and for collections of 
minerals. The most perfect collection of the kind is that 
in the imperial cabinet in Vienna, sometimes along with 
other meteoric stones; very large specimens are also to be 
seen in the collections in the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, 
and in the British M useum. 
PLATE XVIII. —Fig. 1 — 12. —Sulphuret of Iron. 
Fig. 1.—Magnetic Pyrites, Pyrrhotine. 
A comparatively rare mineral, which crystallizes in hexa¬ 
gonal prisms, and, as in Fig. 1, generally appears to be 
striated; small hexagonal tables, laminae, and crystalline 
foliated masses of a liver-brown to pinchbeck yellow 
colour, of greyish-black streak and low metallic lustre, also 
occur; it is friable, opaque, of uneven fracture, of 3'5— 
4*5 hardness, and 4*4—4'6 specific gravity. It is simple 
sulphuret of iron, in combination with one-sixth or one- 
seventh of bi-sulphuret of iron, is attracted by the magnet, 
on the matrass it gives off sulphureous vapours, and leaves 
a black magnetic drop. The finest crystals are found at 
Kongsberg in Norway, where it occurs with native silver 
(Plate XIV. Fig. 1), also at Andreasberg in the Hartz, and 
at Freiberg in Saxony. The foliated variety occurs in large 
masses at Bodemmais in Bavaria, in Canada, and in Massa- 
chussets. Like pyrites, it is used in the manufacture of 
sulphate of iron and sulphuric acid. 
Fig. 2—8.—Pyrites, Iron-Pyrites. 
A very widely distributed mineral, of yellow colour, 
and strong metallic lustre, which gives sparks w T hen struck 
against steel. The primary form is the cube (Fig. 7), 
which not unfrequently presents a striation parallel to the 
edges of the cube; the most usual form is, however, the 
pentagonal dodecahedron (Fig. 2), or a combination of the 
same with the cube (Fig. 3). More rarely the broken 
pentagonal dodecahedron (Fig. 4) appears, and this is 
sometimes also combined with the cube, at the edges of 
which three unequal-sided triangles appear. Octahedrons, 
moreover, occur, which sometimes present drusy surfaces, 
like Fig. 5, or they have an arborescent arrangement, like 
Fig. 6; there is also the pentagonal dodecahedron in which 
the single-edged angles are truncated, so that the ico¬ 
sahedron appears more or less distinctly, as in Plate XVII. 
Fig. 8. Globular and compact masses also occur, fre¬ 
quently in large quantity, especially in the middle and 
low'er stratified rocks, where pyrites also forms the petrify¬ 
ing medium of ammonites, as in Fig. 8, terebratulse, and 
even of wood, and the like. In the specimen mentioned 
(Fig. 8) not only the shell of ammonites amalthceus, but 
also the whole interior of it, is converted into pyrites, and 
a small cluster of cubes of this mineral is also firmly fixed 
on it. 
